Helping Out
by sinner's reward
Summary: Set in the AU of DR: Off The Record.  My interpretation of how Frank and Chuck meet up for the first time.


A/N: You know that new trailer for DR: Off the Record, where Frank is in the Uranus Zone and at the end he gets a call from Stacey about some guy that Frank needs to go rescue? Well, this is a continuation of that. Meaning, this is totally AU, as OTR is also AU.

**~x~x~**

The familiar beeping of the transceiver made Frank's heart sink. Carefully balancing on his left leg while trying to hold onto all of his souvenirs, Frank was able to press the button with his right knee in order to answer the call. "What is it, Stacey?" he asked dully.

"Frank, I've been trying to reach you for hours! There's a guy here..."

Frank sighed. "Let me guess – guy, stuck in a store, two hundred zombies around him, needs a piggyback to the safe house..." Glancing at the two hundred zombies that were around him and realizing that there were still people out there that he would need to help, Frank's heart sank even lower. "Well, I guess playtime's over."

And as he walked away from Uranus Zone, he managed to get one more zombie in the face with his water gun.

A few moments later, the transceiver rang again. This time, Frank just let everything drop to the ground so he could answer it. He figured that there was no use in carrying the stuff around anymore, if Stacey was going to keep on pestering him. There was also the fact that if he did go back into the safe house with all this stuff, Stacey would chew him about about wasting valuable time and that was the last thing that Frank wanted.

"Hey," he said, leaning against a nearby wall.

"Frank! What happened? I lost you!"

"Sorry, Stacey." There was just enough sincerity in his voice for her to not question his apology.

"Anyways, there's a guy holed up in Ye Olde Toybox in Royal Flush Plaza. He's not moving around at all. I'm getting pretty worried, Frank."

"All right, I'll go check it out." Sighing deeply, Frank stretched for a moment before heading back towards the plaza.

**~x~x~**

Earlier, when the outbreak first occurred and Frank was making his way back to the safe house, he had noticed a man in a bright yellow jacket carrying his daughter. It was really hard to lose track of the guy, actually, because of that jacket. And in the commotion, he had heard him yell out for someone named Katey. Frank turned back to look at the man, who was now running in the opposite direction of the safe house. The little girl was no longer with him. Frank wasn't sure what happened after that. Frank just barely made it to the safe house on time himself, before the doors were shut. A quick glance around told Frank that the man and his daughter didn't make it back in time, so he assumed that the worst had happened.

But, now, much to his surprise, Frank had found the man again, exactly where Stacey had said, in the back of Ye Olde Toybox. He could tell it was the same guy by that annoyingly bright yellow jacket of his. The man's back was to him, and he was hunched over something, but Frank couldn't really tell what.

"Hey, uh, how you doin', man?" Frank approached the man slowly and carefully, just in case the man decided to attack him at the last minute. He didn't want to take any chances.

"How am I doing?" The man scoffed. "My daughter, she's..."

Frank didn't need to hear the rest of the sentence – the poor kid had turned. He could see the blood that was scattered all over the plush, yellow floor. There was also a slight odor of decaying flesh.

"She didn't bite you or anything, uh...?"

"Chuck. No. Just leave me alone."

Frank threw his arms up in desperation. "Look, I can't just leave you here, not with the living dead trying to get in here to eat you."

"Really? So, that woman who was asking for your help earlier, and you just ignored her, that wasn't just leaving her to die?"

Frank thought quickly about the instance – sure, he had maybe left the girl with the golf club in SporTrans to the zombies, but he had six other people following him, and he could barely get them to listen to him. He wasn't exactly good at crowd control, unless it came to the undead. And sure, maybe a shiver went though his spine when he heard her screaming bloody murder, and maybe he wanted to go back when there was an abrupt silence, but he had priorities. And, the fact that three members of his group were being mauled by a horde of zombies, he had to prioritize the living over the dead.

Or, something to that effect, anyways.

"Wait a sec – how do you know about that?"

Chuck merely shrugged. "I was passing by when it happened."

"So, if you saw it, why didn't you help?"

"I was trying to find my daughter, idiot."

"...right," Frank said, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, I guess you're a lost cause. Have fun, rookie." Frank turned to walk away before Chuck spoke.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Frank turned around to face Chuck's back again. "I was sent here to help you out, but if you don't want my help, then I'll just give you what you want and let you be. I'm sure that there are a ton of people still out there that actually want my help, so why should I stay here with someone who's just gonna just sit there and reminisce on 'what could have been's' instead of doing something about avenging his daughter's death?"

"I can't just leave her here, not like this."

"Look, she's gone. You can't save her anymore."

"I..." The man was silent for a moment before he stood up and turned around to face Frank. "You're Frank West, that photojournalist from Willamette, right? You gotta know what's going on around here. I mean, this whole thing couldn't have been an accident."

"I dunno. Might have been."

"You've gotta help me. I need... I don't... I can't just let this happen again. I won't let this happen again. There's something fishy about this whole situation, and I have to figure out what that something is. For my wife. For Katey. Maybe... maybe I can save others from their fate."

Frank patted Chuck's shoulder. "Fine. I'll help you out, but only if you help me out."

"What can I do?"

"Well, for starters, you can help me whack some 'Molemen From Uranus'. I'm _this_ close to getting the high score, and –"

Chuck groaned in aggravation. "Really, buddy? What does that have to do with anything about finding out why this happened?"

"Buddy?" Frank shook his head. "Okay, so you want more fun than that. Well, I've got some intel about that TIR host T.K., and if you want to help me out, you'll provide some backup."

"What, you mean, like fighting him?"

Frank shrugged. "Last time I met up with him, he attacked me, and when people do that, you know they're hiding something. So, are you gonna help me out or not?"

After a moment of contemplation, Chuck finally nodded. "Sure, whatever it takes."

"Fantastic," Frank said as he led the way out of the store, and into the unknown.


End file.
